Developing Word-Card Games to Improve English Writing

Facing the English Language Teaching (ELT) challenges nowadays, the English teachers could facilitate language learning in effective and joyful ways by creating the word-card games for learning English. In this study, the writer would like to investigate whether the word-card games he designed and developed would be the effective strategy to improve students' vocabulary and grammar for writing. There were twenty-one students participating in this classroom action research. It is also essential to know how the English teachers could meet the needs and levels of competence and design the effective word-card games for learning English. It was unique to create four topics of the games, such as Synonyms, Antonyms, Degrees of Comparison, and Making Sentences by using the same cards, to apply pedagogical principles, and also to choose a scorer for each group to help conduct successful games. The word-card games also needed some continuous improvement by trying to play the word-card games with different respondents or players in order to gain necessary feedbacks to improve the shortcomings of the word-card games. In this study, most of his students or respondents gave positive feedbacks of the word-card games for learning English especially for enhancing the joy of learning and strengthening their writing skil

Collaborative learning in practice : examples from natural resource management in Asia

Co-published with Cambridge University Press IndiaSpanish version available in IDRC Digital Library: Aprendizaje colaborativo en acción : ejemplos del manejo de los recursos naturales en AsiaThis book is about collaborative learning for participatory rural development with a focus on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) approaches. The case studies from China, South Asia and Southeast Asia focus on real-life, complex learning situations concerning CBNRM dilemmas. They illustrate the gradual making of novel communities of practice for capacity development, demonstrate both the process and outcome merits of using a variety of learning methods, and include facilitator participation as an integral part of the learning process. The effectiveness of capacity development strategies is increased through solid grounding in the local context